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Nicola Sturgeon’s foreign affairs minister has denied that the SNP had presided over a diplomatic shambles over their attempts to get Scotland a special Brexit deal after receiving a series of high-profile rejections on the UK and world stage.

In a tetchy interview on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Politics programme, Fiona Hyslop insisted no other countries were publicly supporting or opposing the First Minister’s plan for Scotland to stay in the single market even if the rest of the UK comes out.

The External Affairs Minister accused host Gordon Brewer of being “offensive” for suggesting otherwise but he retorted that he was only reading out views that have been expressed over the past week.

Ms Hyslop was speaking after Mike Russell, Ms Sturgeon’s Brexit Minister, was caught dropping misleading hints to diplomats in Brussels that the Scottish Government was in talks with the Spanish.

They are concerned about giving Scotland a special deal for fear of encouraging their own separatist movements. His comments reached Alfonso Dastis, the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, prompting the Spanish government to make clear there were no discussions being staged.

It emerged earlier in the week that Alex Salmond has held informal talks with the four European Free Trade Association members in Switzerland over Scotland joining the organisation, which gets access to the EU single market.

The series of knock-backs came ahead of the start of Ms Sturgeon’s two-day visit to Dublin during which she is expected to lobby for retaining single market membership and emphasise Scotland’s economic links with Ireland.

Pressed on the BBC Sunday Politics Scotland programme that the Scottish Government’s diplomatic offensive had been a failure, Ms Hyslop told Mr Brewer: “I think you’re the one being offensive in what we’re trying to do here.

“You’re putting words in the mouths of others, you’re not understanding where we are in the process. Nobody is negotiating with anybody because Article 50 has not been triggered by the UK Government.”

Mr Brewer retorted that he was only quoting that people have said over the past week but Ms Hyslop hit out at BBC Scotland for not attending the British-Irish Council in Cardiff on Friday, ahead of which Mr Jones gave his damning opinion of Ms Sturgeon’s deal.

She said diplomatic talks were taking place behind closed doors with other European countries, including France and Italy, and they were “very sympathetic” to Scotland’s Remain vote.

David Mundell also told the Sunday Politics that a large swathe of new powers could be devolved to Holyrood after Brexit and he wanted to encourage debate on the issue.

The Scottish Secretary cited agriculture, fisheries and the environment as three policy areas over which the EU currently has a major say, but could be devolved.

He also told the Sunday Times that the scale of the transfer of powers could be similar to that conducted after the independence referendum.